NEWS

Prime Minister Pahor attends European Council meeting in Brussels

On Thursday, 17 June 2010, the Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor attended a European Council meeting in Brussels. On this occasion, the EU Heads of State and Government discussed and adopted conclusions on four topical issues, namely on the new EU strategy for growth and jobs, the Toronto G20 Summit, the Millennium Development Goals and climate changes.

    

The meeting was opened by the President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, who welcomed and addressed the participants.  He stressed that the topics of this Council meeting would be mainly related to economy.  "In the past, we talked about the stability of the euro, whereas now, we must think long-term and expedite the work on the EU 2020 Strategy, banking regulation, budget discipline etc."  President Van Rompuy concluded his address by pointing out that this European Council should in particular deliver a positive message and that "we should move forward".    In his statement to the press on the margins of the meeting, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor,  emphasized that Slovenia's tackling of the crisis should be considered in the light of its indebtedness, which is still far below the average, however, efforts are needed to overcome this debt.  The Slovenian Prime Minister also agrees that we must be courageous, "move forward, implement reforms and pursue our goals, i.e. sustainable deficit and an approximate 1% economic growth.

   

The European Council finally approved the 2020 Strategy and Slovenia is not lagging behind in this regard.  Prime Minister Pahor stressed that some changes are more difficult, because besides being less flexible certain environments are also less controlled than others.  "It turned out that different governments within the G27 group have different views, however, new integrations are being developed and we must be on the right side. We must continue to implement structural reforms, adopt a supplementary budget and increase foreign investments." Mr Pahor added that Slovenia strongly welcomes certain tests, which would be performed regarding the functioning of banks with the purpose of eliminating distrust of banks. According to the Prime Minister, Slovenia is recovering quickly, however, we are to be well aware that also other countries will speed up appropriate measures and will not rely on solidarity and mutual assistance; in this respect, it is of vital importance that Slovenia does not lag behind other most developed European countries.

  

On the margins of today's meeting, Prime Minister Pahor also met with the President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, who will soon arrive on a working visit to Slovenia, during which the discussions will focus in particular on the further EU enlargement process and on social, security and other issues of the region.  The Slovenian Prime Minister also held talks with the Italian President Berlusconi and the Greek President Papandreou.